Hunter Biden filed a lawsuit against the IRS on Monday claiming his privacy rights as a taxpayer were violated by two service whistleblowers, The Washington Post reported.
In July, IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joe Ziegler alleged in a House committee hearing that President Joe Biden's Justice Department effectively obstructed and minimized its criminal investigation into Hunter Biden's tax crimes.
Monday's lawsuit says that while Hunter Biden has "all the same responsibilities as any other American citizen," he also "has no fewer or lesser rights than any other American citizen, and no government agency or government agent has free reign to violate his rights simply because of who he is," the Post reported.
Hunter Biden charges that Shapley and Ziegler, when they went to Congress and news organizations, disclosed information about the investigation and Hunter Biden's taxes that the law aims to keep secret.
"This assault on Mr. Biden's rights involved the public disclosure of his confidential tax information during more than 20 nationally televised and non-congressionally sanctioned interviews and numerous public statements," the lawsuit states, the Post reported.
The lawsuit added that the disclosures included "detailed allegations regarding the specific tax years under investigation, the amounts of deductions, the nature of those deductions, and allegations of liability regarding specific tax years and the amount thereof, that could only be known to them based on a review of the physical tax returns themselves."
Hunter Biden last week was indicted on criminal charges he made false statements in connection with the purchase of a firearm and illegally possessed the firearm as a drug addict.
He initially agreed to plead guilty to charges that he failed to pay more than $100,000 in income taxes in 2017 and 2018. The deal collapsed in August after a federal judge questioned whether the agreement would bar prosecutors from bringing charges on the gun issues.
The Post reported that special counsel David Weiss may file a new indictment against Hunter Biden in another federal court over alleged tax crimes that the agents say they found in reviewing his finances from 2014 to 2019.